The
Smithsonian Magazine arrived at home a couple of days ago, and one of the articles immediately caught my attention -- in addition to a cover story unearthing new information on Thomas Jefferson's slaves, and an interesting article on the real Tom Sawyer, a friend of Mark Twain's. The one relevant here is called "The Great New England Vampire Panic."
I've barely had time to skim the article, which is quite lengthy and luckily is also available online.
It's also quite timely given another discussion thread here, because the article documents dozens of cases of bodies being unearthed -- and some beheaded -- in wake of local fears and beliefs that a vampire was preying on the community. These occurences took place in many areas of New England -- many of them well past 1840, interestingly enough.
The Great New England Vampire Panic
Two hundred years after the Salem witch trials, farmers became convinced that their relatives were returning from the grave to feed on the living
By Abigail Tucker, Smithsonian magazine, October 2012
Read more:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Great-New-England-Vampire-Panic-169791986.html#ixzz27iUNcRrZ